A lot can change in a year. Names, loyalties, intentions, the sense of right and wrong, even a heart. What once seemed so simple, quickly becomes painfully complex and Dante learns first hand that not everything is set in stone, that the forces of good and evil are more than mere ideas and just how steep the price of peace really is.

Summary: It was raining and Minato was barely aware of a confusing din of explosions and yells around him and such pain as he'd never felt before and Kushina's screams that he was a stupid, self-sacrificing bastard and if he dared die she would revive him and kill him herself.

The places you never expected to exist. The people you’d only dreamt of meeting. The events of their tomorrow having already passed in your present. Was my reality their illusion? Was their illusion my reality? I haven’t been sure for the past 20 years.

As an outsider, I was hated as a missing nin. As a traitor. As the enemy. Like the one I followed, I was wanted in almost every country. I had no regrets however. Well, no regrets when it came to him. Never when it came to him. He was the one I turned to. My leader. My light. My solace.

We were despised. Looked down upon. Hated for our crimes and I have to admit, everyone had every right to hate us. However, despite all this loathing, I feel the need to write what it felt like to live the life that we did, for not many know what really goes on in the obscure world of a rogue ninja.

I can only hope that by reading this, people can better understand us and the paths we have chosen. And I hope they know that our actions were and are not based on evil or ill-intent, but loneliness, fear and most of all: pain.